Playdate SDK 1.13.4, 5 and 6 - Mac Mini M1 (Sound doesn't play and OS seems to be slower at loading certain things.)

SDK Bug Reports
1

:playdate_static:
Strange issues arose when I updated to 1.13.5 on my M1 Mac.

The simulator likes crashing a lot at random times even when I am not using it.
There seems to be something relating to memory with that.

Sound in the OS and other games are completely silent.

Wrapping a game in the simulator and unwrapping crashes the Playdate OS and sometimes the simulator.
(I never knew about CUSTOM gift wrap!! AAAAA! I love it!)

Playdate OS seems to be slower at loading things.
Like the Settings, the Menu Button with the Volume and Screenshot.
They would hang for a lot longer and work fine after.

Hopefully this list of issues helps continue to build Playdate SDK!

1 Like
2

Suddenly all the issues just fixed themselves.

Sound now works. Wrapping and unwrapping works. Playdate OS now is fluid in loading the menu button and settings.

And just as I was typing this, it closed itself.
That first issue is still happening though.

(Update about a day later.)
The problems came back. I have no idea whats happening.

1 Like
3

I have the same issue with sound - silence. Also Mac but not m1 or m2. Sound does work on simulator 1.13.3, so its something with 1.13.5

4

FWIW I do have sound (I tested with the volume bar in the system menu) with Simulator 1.13.5, M1 Mac running Ventura 13.3.1. And no random idle crashes (only when I run a game with a known crashing bug). It's only been a day, though!

5

This also seems to happen on 1.13.4.

I will continue to use 1.13.3 for now.

6

I've also been having this issue on an M1 Mac mini. Sound was working, but it no longer works, and the simulator loads slower.

7

Just reporting that 1.13.6 did NOT fix that unfortunately. Have to use 1.13.3 to check the sound in simulator.

I'm on Mac OS Monterey (12.6.4) Mac Pro (Late 2013)

8

Are all sounds not working or just some? We have an M1 mini, and a host of other Macs, and none of us can reproduce this. What is your sound output set to? If you change it does it help?

9

Okay actually I updated to 1.13.6 and the sound is now working fine.
Seems like all the issues went away.
I have no idea whats happening anymore.

The Playdate Simulator still likes closing randomly whenever you go into settings and out.

10

Are you reporting these crashes the next time you launch the Simulator? I looked at the crash reports this morning and didn't see anything that would be related to sound. Please attach any crash logs so I can take a look, thanks!

11

I did report one that didn't involve sound but I shall do that right now.

12

Oh, you know, going in and out of the Settings app while connected to wifi could crash. It's a known issue/limitation with the Playdate OS and the Simulator.

1 Like
13

Oh I didn't know that!
I thought it was weird it just kept happening after checking the version and input test.

14

All the sounds don't work. Including the system sounds when I go to home menu in simulator. I also noticed that actual Simulator works MUCH slower! Like ~1 second lag to open system menu.

I was trying to switch between internal speaker, external DAC and even monitor speakers - no sound. Obviously checked if the sound in actual Playdate simulator is not muted)

Once again everything works flawlessly on 1.13.3

15

Also checked different Simulator versions. The issue actually was introduced in 13.3.4

1 Like
16

To be honest the lag when opening system menu is kind of accurate. This is because there is a lag on the actual playdate when accessing the system menu.

17

Could you who are having these issues attach a Sample of the Simulator when it's running slowly/not playing sound? To do so:

  1. open Activity Monitor.app
  2. Select the Simulator in the list
  3. In the toolbar, select action button -> Sample Process
  4. copy and zip the resulting file and attach it here, thanks!
18

Here is mine.
Sample of Playdate Simulator (1.13.4).txt.zip (43.0 KB)

This one is showing slowdown and no sound across the simulator.

19

Thanks, what were you doing in the Simulator when you took this sample?

20

It opened the Launcher then I simply scrolled and opened the menu by the menu button.
Theres not much to say about it cause it happens at launch.